I think the visual explanation here offers credence to the criticism. This certainly isn't "hipster" culture - this is design critique.

The worse thing would be if people blindly said things like "iOS7 is just not intuitive" and went on to drink their PBR and evangelize about Phonebloks - instead, these are real examples of why iOS7 could be better.

At the very least, this thread is instructive for learning designers. I know as a younger programmer and designer, when someone said that "JavaScript has the weirdest quirks", it was useless unless someone showed me the quirks. Along came Douglas Crockford's Good Parts, which, while critical of the bad parts, was very instructive. I think this can function in similar ways.

It's not just "Fail" culture rearing its stupid head - the tone is far from embarrassing to Apple, and instead is generally descriptive of legitimate design failures.

The number of obvious bugs [1] included lends a lot of weight to the impression of it being more about sniping than criticism.

[1] z-index, text overlap, mixed states, etc. These are not questionable design choices. They're bugs. And lumping them in only detracts from the site and the many legit design gripes (problems of focus, alignment, contrast, usability, etc.)

Are bugs in the UI not themselves part of the UI? If their goal is point out "sloppiness" in the UI, why should obvious or slightly less-obvious bugs be excluded?

Because it's very likely that anything that would be seen as a "bug" will be fixed in updates; whereas things that are the result of intentional (bad) design, like lack of information hierarchy, probably won't be fixed, because they won't be seen as incorrect. (Which is, nominally, what this tumblr would be for pointing out.)

I don't think I agree with your last sentence, which seems to be the issue. The site isn't called "The Terrible Design Decisions of iOS7", it called "Sloppy UI" which I think covers both bugs and UI. Further, sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between a bug and a design decision, so I think it's hard to ask them to just stick to one or the other. May as well point out everything you see that isn't up to standards, be those design or implementation.

To me, the Tumblr is pointing out an overall lack of attention to detail. Some of these obvious bugs should have never made it past QA/testing, but somehow they did - and that's sloppy UI, regardless of whether it was an intentional "do that" directive.

I understand what you're saying, and perhaps the name of the Tumblr should change to "Issues with iOS7", but that sounds pretty boring to me. Instead, we can all agree that sloppy/bad decision-making, sloppy QA practices, etcetera can be learned from, and that there is value in identifying (and avoiding) these mistakes both in the works of others and in our own work.

> "Some of these obvious bugs should have never made it past QA/testing, but somehow they did"

Perhaps they made it past QA/testing because what is an obvious bug in a screenshot isn't necessarily obvious to generate or replicate.

I haven't seen any of those bugs in the time I've spent in iOS7.

I'm with 'roc' on this one. Including a bunch of obvious bugs tells me that you either a) can't distinguish between design and implementation or b) are more interested in shitting on other people's work than saying anything useful.

This is fail culture masquerading as design critique, and it isn't even doing that well.

> This certainly isn't "hipster" culture - this is design critique.

Critique that doesn't actually tell what's wrong ... isn't.

Let's talk about the z-index issue with the AppStore icon. How is this reproduced? I have never seen that. How do I know it's not shopped?

All it says is "z-index". Not useful. Not really a critique to me, it's just too terse.

Critique doesn't always explain reproduction. That's more like a bug report I think. Actually saying what's wrong is describing that the UI has a clear problem with z-index. I would understand if someone was trolling the Apple bug submission process, but they aren't; they are pointing out flaws with clear visual examples.

I disagree that critique must inherently describe the problem. Sometimes, the problem is fairly self descriptive, especially with what this blog provides, which is obvious issues that most of the blog's audience will immediately understand as "sloppy" - that is, I shouldn't have to explain why the z-index issue is sloppy to justify my criticism, but if you want a bug report, I can explain how I got there.

here's the thing though, If google would have released an UI as bad as this (just my oppinion as an iphone user) all the tech press and the hardcore apple fanboys would have trashed it online and offline for months. Who will be the role model from now on for "near perfection", "attention to detail"? Just look at this: http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/hon.jpg?... and tell me how you feel about it :)

>here's the thing though, If google would have released an UI as bad as this (just my oppinion as an iphone user) all the tech press and the hardcore apple fanboys would have trashed it online and offline for months.

Google HAS produced a UI as bad as this. Actually worse. The Android UI, up until 4 was amateur hour. And still is not up there yet.

It's just held in much less scrutiny compared to Apple, because nobody expects much better.

Apple is really defined by superior design. Google is defined generally by superior engineering. A better point to make would be if Google revamped their search engine and it was meaningfully degraded experience for search. They'd be criticized and rightly so as that's what they're supposed to do better than anyone else.

Didn't that happen, back around 2009? I remember many of my searches failing to find things they had the month or two before because Google was treating my parameters more as suggestions (returning results with 1 or 2 of the 4 or 5 words I'd used, ignoring quotes for grouping, etc).

What? They fixed that? Nope, searching anything with "verse" still makes Google think it knows better than you and searches for "vs" instead.

Anything?

https://www.google.com/search?q=chapter+and+verse&oq=chapter...

Nope.

https://www.google.com/search?q=free%20verse ?

Nope.

Something just random, that I didn't think would have anything interesting?

https://www.google.com/search?q=seventeen+verse

Nope. What search terms replace "verse" with "vs" for you? Or do you google comparisons constantly?

Or are you just a troll?

Agreed, I had a hard time getting the behavior described. Googling for "orange verse tangerine" finally did it. Other things that don't make as much sense to be compared, such as "giraffe verse tangerine" only produce a suggestion of "Did you mean..." but still it searched for my original query.

Seems Google does this for things that are likely comparisons (e.g. oranges and tangerines), which seems reasonable.

I work on Synonyms at Google. We're constantly tweaking our algorithms. It's possible that at one point one tweak made us more aggressive with replacing "verse" with "vs", but then later another tweak made it less aggressive. :-)

Neato :)

There is a verbatim search option now which undoes some of the damage of this. But I agree that Google search has actually degraded over the past few years from the point-of-view of the highly sophisticated searcher (it may have improved or stayed the same for the masses).

I'm sorry, not following this, the word is "versus", a verse is typically something like a unit of a song. Or is this American usage, in which case what do you call a "verse"?

Google likes to suggest alternatives to words, he does mean verse as in verse of a song or poem, but (I never saw this particular one) had some searches where google was trying to turn verse into versus or vs. What I saw, and I've either gotten used to it or it's changed, was around 2009 when my searches stopped working one day. I'd use 3-5 keywords and Google's first page would only display pages using 1-2 of them. Invariably it was not the results I wanted. Quoting sections stopped meaning anything to Google searches so searching for phrases became dicy, as the words in the phrase would get split up. So if I was searching for "phrases became dicy" and new that was a line from the page I wanted, Google would return pages with maybe all three words but they'd be scattered about the page.

>Apple is really defined by superior design. Google is defined generally by superior engineering.

Wait what? When did that happen? When did Google get "superior engineering"? For search, web etc, perhaps. But as far as iOS vs Android is concerned that was never the case.

For starters, Apple design and engineered the iPhone first. Google's Android FIRST came out a whole year later. Early Android prototypes, shown by Google just before the iPhone was announced had half-size screens and physical keyboards, just like the rest of the smartphones of the day.

Since then Apple has consistenly beat Google on hardware features, from the retina display (with much better color rendition to boot) to camera innovations, the motion co-processor, a working fingerprint sensor (for a change), and 64 bit ARM (which means far more than "being able to see more memory which isn't even installed") etc. Consistently better battery life.

Well, maybe it's not a fair comparison, because Google is not a hardware engineering company. They had to buy Motorola, which wasn't the best in the business itself, anyway. But the above are still true for Samsung offerings too.

On the industrial engineering side, Apple's designs, machining, fit and polish is unsurpassed on the Android side. Including materials used.

In the software side it's the same story. The iOS Cocoa API is leaps and bounds ahead of the Android API. It was never plagued with issues with scroll lag and display latency (and also audio latency, which is why 90% of Audio/MIDI apps are for iOS). Doesn't have a nightmarish GC experience to tend to for more involved apps. More fit and polish overall. Heck, Android even gets 80%+ of all the mobile malware around.

The major points for Android devices were not better engineering per se, but stuff like bigger screens, different configurations etc. And extra features that got marginal use, like face unlock and near field communication, stuff that Apple could have if that's how they rolled.

Some good stuff Android had first was because Apple went conservative to implement them when battery life better permitted them (like background apps -- Android just unleashed them and the hell with it, Apple trying to get the juice, and hence experience, right first).

There's one genuine thing Android had going for it, and that's the Intents system in my opinion. The "quick settings change panel" was also another good one. I don't think we can go much further.

> the motion co-processor

Agree with your general points but the Moto X also has a pair of interesting co-processors: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/the-iphone-5s-the-mot...

Personally, I don't think Apple's getting anywhere enough credit for their in-house processor design at the moment. If that's not engineering talent I don't know what is. Just look at the Anandtech review for proof of that:

http://anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/5

> Early Android prototypes, shown by Google just before the iPhone was announced had half-size screens and physical keyboards, just like the rest of the smartphones of the day.

The HTC G1 was also one of the early prototypes shown off. Android definitely came later, but they were already working on a large, capacitive touch phone before the iPhone came out.

> Since then Apple has consistenly beat Google on hardware features, from the retina display

Uh, no, so very much no. Apple was sooo late to the high density party. Android was shipping high density, high resolution phones a year before Apple did. Apple did leapfrog on the density front with retina, but they were definitely, unquestionably playing catch-up on this front, not leading the way.

> camera innovations, the motion co-processor, a working fingerprint sensor (for a change)

All of this was done by other companies first, and in some cases better.

> The iOS Cocoa API is leaps and bounds ahead of the Android API.

This is such a stupid statement. Both APIs have their advantages and disadvantages.

> The major points for Android devices were not better engineering per se, but stuff like bigger screens, different configurations etc.

Which was enabled due to superior engineering in some respects. True density independence, flexible layouts everywhere, architecture-neutral designs, etc...

I had a feeling that a critique on Apple would turn into a Google bash. Can you please stay on topic. As an IOS user who is posting from his iPhone, I'm tired of Apple fans deflecting genuine criticisms at APPLE. You didn't raise or refute one thing in the article.

You sir/mam are a fanboy of the worst kind.

For the record, I feel IOS 7 lost its way. Jobsy would have shot it to pieces and buried it before it saw the light of day.

> Early Android prototypes, shown by Google just before the iPhone was announced had half-size screens and physical keyboards, just like the rest of the smartphones of the day.

And now it is clear that you don't know a shit abouit what your talking

By the way, Apple also invented the wheel and the sliced bread

Seriously where do engineering stops and design starts to make that statement work ?

Looking at Google Map, Google Search. Those "defining" application of Google, in addition of incredible engineering they redefined what a map and search engine should even look like, so design. Similarly, the iPhone, iMac, iPod were as much about engineering and than design.

In reality, Apple is defined by making money on hardware and Google on cloud software. It is a quirk that they got to clash, because they very much complemented each other.

Google get some slack with Android because they do not sell phones and the vast majority of users do not use Android UI anyway. On the hardware side, Android world provides hundreds of models, there is at least 10 flagship model at any single time. Each get its own amount of nitpicking but eventually all get lost in the noise of other Android news (announcements, prototype, announcement of prototype, benchmark war, "megahertz" war of the day).

I respectfully disagree with "And still is not up there yet."

Android 4.0+ has fantastic design, in my opinion.

I've been an Apple fanboy since around 1984, and I have to agree with you.

I very much prefer the UI of my Jelly Bean Nexus 7 to this thing they call iOS 7.

And before anyone says I don't like change -- the new UI does make iOS<=6 look very dated, but the odd icon proportions, color scheme and unbalanced use of fonts (sometimes the font is just too light, sometimes the mix just feels.. weird) don't appeal to me at all.

What I hate is when Apple apologists say "you just have to get used to" the new look. I'm already used to the new look, but I still don't like it.

>I very much prefer the UI of my Jelly Bean Nexus 7 to this thing they call iOS 7

That's kind of ironic given that the Android blogs and _some_ comments on forums (including hacker news) are all "The UI is Android ripoff" (while the Windows Phone camp is "The UI is a Windows Phone ripoff")

While I understand that some parts could be considered a "ripoff", the bulk of the new UI simply feels like a new skin over the old UI (keep in mind that I upgraded my iPhone 4, which doesn't get all the wizzy features that newer phones get).

And this new skin at times burns my eyes, especially some of the nauseating color choices.

Thank goodness I don't use Game Center. The colours for the bubbles make me want to literally throw up -- I don't know if other people are like that, but certain colours have that effect on me.

The colours might make you unwell, but have you seen game centre in iOS 6? Forcing the user to use some sort of command line interface would be less offensive.

To be fair, some Apple fans have constantly considered Touchwiz (or sometimes just Android) both an iOS ripoff and terrible.

Android since Gingerbread has had superior design for me, but I'm more of a function over form kind of guy and don't want to mess around with things looking pretty when I need to get stuff done.

design is one thing, and you know what, its pretty good, however i can't understand how google - the WW leader in indexing - is letting people use a phone that takes up to 2-4 seconds to load the contact list... that's crazy.

This reminds me of US political fanboys - "well if GWB had done this", "well if Obama had done that".

I don't care what fanboys say or do online, on any side. I'm here to build good software. If someone has some constructive criticism, let me know.

I'm not sure about the "ethics" of non-constructive criticism from a developer perspective, but I think it is completely justified from the customer perspective. I paid (a lot) for this phone, I am allowed to be unhappy with the direction it's going: 1. As a market signal to the creators (which serves as very useful feedback), and 2. Because realistically I have to upgrade or be forced to not get any updates for my apps either (just in case someone wants to chime in that I "could" stay on iOS 6).

That's kind of the interesting thing we're seeing here that doesn't fit your analogy: most of the people complaining this time around are the iOS people about iOS.

You're upset that the cover is obscuring the word "iPhone"? Or is "hon" a euphemism for something and I'm not getting it?

It's not bad per se, but it looks like someone designed the cover, and someone else designed the phone, and they never tested them together, or just didn't care.

Again, this is not technically bad, but if you flaunt having a "staggering attention to detail" this is a sort of slap in the face of credibility.

Having them design a larger hole to encompass the "iPhone" logo (even while still half-covering the babble below) would have, instead, sent a very clear "we cared" message to users.

"hon" also is an informal diminutive for "honey".

It's very sloppy. Especially for Apple.

Eh. Apple has always been phoning in their accessories. They were never particularly good. I don’t see this as indicative of anything, it's just Apple being sloppy as they always are with these kinds of things.

Where it counts Apple does not typically exhibit this behaviour, as evidenced by both new iPhones.

I don't agree. Most of Apple's accessories are extremely stylish and complement their hardware: iPad smart cover, keyboards, mouses, chargers, ear buds, and monitors. I think the iPad smart cover alone demonstrates that Apple has the capability to make cases/covers for their mobile devices that are both functional and stylish. What accessories, besides the iPhone case discussed here, do you think Apple has made that are sloppy?

One word: antennagate.

Antennagate was a myth. They didn't change anything about the antenna, as far as I know, yet somehow the whole problem just disappeared.

And still they released a phone with antenna issues. People complained just as they are now. Apple did something relatively rare and issued a "mea cuppa" in the form of a free case. Life went on.

My point was that controversies like these design hiccups, the shape of the case, etc. are not new to Apple.

In some ways the design issues are significantly less severe since they can be corrected without new hardware.

You keep implying Apple released a phone with legitimate antenna issues. My understanding is this has been pretty much shown to be false. Apple was responding to a media shitstorm and Jobs said the issue was "overblown." In other words, it was probably an extremely rare, if not completely non-existent, issue but was magnified due to the fact that it happened to a well known blogger.

Brian Klug of Anandtech disagrees with you:

https://mobile.twitter.com/nerdtalker/status/380217872380739...

I think it's the opposite: things in the Android world are far, far worse and get very little criticism. Expectations are different.

As opposed to hipsters in armchairs proclaiming every release the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Criticizing Apple for poor design is like criticizing IBM for being unreliable: rather important because that's why people chose them in the first place. I'm still hoping that iOS 7 is an elaborate prank, and will be replaced by something worthy of Apple before the majority upgrades.

Not everyone can offer constructive feedback, but most people can have the problems brought to their attention and understand them. Even if you had constructive criticism, how exactly would you go about alerting a developer at Apple?

Surely this is constructive. There is nothing there that cannot be acted upon. Any dev could treat these as a collection of bug reports.

My point exactly. We love all things Apple, and I want to see those fixed.

I've only been running iOS since it GM'ed ( which wasn't too long ago) but havn't seen some of the stuff shown there. iMessages certainly do that on my 4S. The notification badge on the Applications icon is always on top. I run into the battery low notification every day and it hasn't yet disagreed between values shown at the status versus the 20% and 10% thresholds you get these alerts from.

Are these possibly from an earlier beta ?

The battery notification looks identical to that in iOS6, and probably has the same behaviour.

If you run your phone with the display off, say from 21% battery down to 11%, then it will cross the 20% reporting threshold. The next time that you unlock the phone and activate the display, you will get the notification.

It's not inconsistent; nor is it just being "optimistic" -- it may be poorly worded, but it consistently displays that same message every time you unlock the phone after the battery drains to 20%.

If the person who took that screenshot had waited another ten minutes, then the battery would probably have reached 10%, and the 10% notification would have been shown instead.

It doesn't show that message every time you unlock. Just once, after it hits 20 percent. And then again, once, after it hits 10 percent.

This is GM

I think that it's more complicated than just criticism of a less than perfect UI. I think it's an expression of the Apple community's concern that without Steve Jobs, Apple will no longer be able to produce the highly polished products that the community has come to expect.

> Apple community's concern that without Steve Jobs[...]

The Apple community isn't concerned about a lack of Jobs, it's a portion of the non-Apple, Tech community that likes to shout this one out.

You're not getting surly, you're being empathetic. It's a good thing to rebel against the cheap comedy that is Fail culture.

It probably took hours to create this tumblr and the author did not get paid. I think this tumblr is fantastic. We need more people like this. Ready to call out crap.

> We need more people like this. Ready to call out crap.

We already have plenty of people ready to call out crap. Half the discussions on this site devolve into someone arguing about perceived flaws in something.

What we actually need is people pushing up the level of discourse. A stream of pictures and pithy sarcasm isn't useful until someone else comes along and responds to it. The world needs more thoughtful analysis and advancement, we probably have enough tumblrs full of snarky images.

Crap? Really? I upgraded yesterday and think it's amazingly good, in spite of a few minor issues. Do you have any concept of what it took to imagine, develop, implement, test, and distribute something like this to 100 million devices?

Crap, really?

That's a super cynical way to interpret this. I found the tumblr useful in aiding me in my decision whether to immediately upgrade to iOS 7 or not.

Putting the "meh" UI esthetic aside, I didn't want to upgrade because my iPhone 4 had become a pig under 6, and 7 performs a hair worse than 6 in terms of speed and battery life.

There are, however, some valid reasons to upgrade in spite of iOS 7's drawbacks (don't get me started on how the new lock screen keypad makes it harder for me to unlock my phone with just my thumb).

* Call blocking has "finally" (gruber's favorite line lately) been implemented properly -- if you are one of those people who are increasingly getting more telemarketer calls on your cell number, this is a huge deal.

* Safari runs faster on iOS7 than iOS6. 90% of what I do is browsing, so this can be a tradeoff that is well worth making.

Well we don't say Parisien are unpleasant persons for no reason.